Comment on The English seaside town

No English seaside resort is worth its salts without at least one Victorian pier jutting out into the sea. For well over 100 years seaside piers have been attracting tourists of all ages. Architecturally they are stunning. When you walk down a pier it's difficult to escape a certain nostalgic feeling.

Comment on The English seaside town posted 2007-07-17 by John O'Hara from Leeds

Comment on The English seaside town

Although the West Pier in Brighton is already listed as an icon, it is seaside piers generally which are so peculiarly English. Eugenius Birch, the engineer of the West Pier actually designed 14 of them, the original Victorian principal purpose of which was to take the sea air while promenading. No other country in the world has seaside piers as we do and inevitably their use has changed in the 140 years they have been around, generating further peculiarly English icons of entertainment. There are too many great piers to be specific as each has its own individuality. It will be a cultural disaster if one by one they allowed to drop into the sea without a fight. There are several notable piers that are in real danger of being lost, through being in the wrong type of ownership, the wrong location or for not having an obvious plausible use. They all need our support, encouragement and expressions of eccentricity, a mark of true Englishness.

Comment on The English seaside town posted 2007-07-17 by Timothy Phillips from London